


a house is not a home

by lowestZenith



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Familial Abuse, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-05
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-02-03 13:31:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1746428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowestZenith/pseuds/lowestZenith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Same house, two different households. Things are much better now that Gordon isn't there.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Shappey Household

Arthur bounces onto the sofa and picks up the remote. He’s excited to watch TV because now, he can put the volume as loud as he wants. Turning it on, he relaxes into his seat. Carolyn walks by the TV room.  
“Mum, come watch with me, there’s this special they’ve got where-“  
“Can’t,” she cuts in. “Got to get ready for tonight. Bloody socialites with their parties…” Carolyn’s muttering fades away as she continues down the hallway. Arthur looks after her for a moment, then turns back. Apparently his mum was in a bad mood. The TV talked on, unresponsive. Arthur felt the couch was too big.

After a few episodes, Carolyn walks in again. Arthur is about to invite her to sit when he sees her face and his mouth shuts with a click.  
“Arthur, Gordon’s not happy and he’s about to come home any minute now. So, you probably should…”  
“Go to my room, yeah.” Arthur turns off the TV, not forgetting first to lower the volume to where it was before he changed it. He pads up the stairs while listening for the sound of the front door. He makes it to his room without hearing it, and by then he’s far away enough that he doesn’t get that warning before the yelling starts. Arthur shuffles to the middle of his bed and starts humming- it works to tune them out, but doesn’t cheer him up as much as humming usually does.

Later, when Arthur has hummed 6 songs and the argument is finished, he finds his mum standing in the doorway to his room. Carolyn looks at him still sitting on the bed for a moment before she steps in and sits down next to him. Arthur smiles tiredly at her. She pats him on the shoulder and he looks at her arm to check for marks.  
Outside the bedroom door, Gordon walks past with a spring in his step.


	2. The Knapp-Shappey Household

Arthur bounces onto the sofa and picks up the remote. There’s a new episode of his favourite show coming on, and he’s almost dancing in anticipation. He leans back and turns on the TV. Carolyn walks by.

“You want to watch the new episode with me, mum?”

“The new episode of what? Oh, it doesn’t matter, I’ve got work to do. MJN is almost in the red, and if it weren’t for that trip last month when _Douglas_ …” Her muttering faded away as Arthur turned back to his show. He stretched his legs out onto the sofa and thought about the trip which had cost so much money. It was quite amusing though… he hoped Douglas wouldn’t be in too much trouble with his mum.

An hour later, Carolyn walked back in and plopped onto the sofa. “If that man wasn’t such a good pilot I’d fire him,” she huffed. Arthur hummed sympathetically, then they both turned to the TV. After a minute of continued watching television he had an idea. “You know what you could do, mum, is…” He turned around and saw she was asleep. Managing MJN made her quite tired, but he knew it was worth it. Smiling, he closed his own eyes. When they had later woken from the sofa (and Carolyn had stretched out her aching back), they both headed upstairs. Before separating towards their separate wings, they stopped a moment.

“Where are we going tomorrow, mum?” Arthur yawned.

“Istanbul! You’ve forgotten already?”

“I guess I did. Maybe I was thinking of something else.”

“That sounds likely.”

“Hey!”

“Goodnight, Arthur.”

“Goodnight, mum.”


End file.
